A protagonist (from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (protagonistes), meaning "player of the first part, (chief actor") is the main character in any story, such as a literary work or drama.[1][2]

The protagonist is at the center of the story, makes the key decisions, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist affects the main characters' circumstances as well, as they are often the primary actor propelling the story forward. If a story contains a subplot, or is a narrative made up of several stories, then the character who is interpreted as the protagonist of each subplot or individual story.[3]

The word protagonist is used notably in stories and forms of literature and culture that contain stories, which would include dramas, novels, operas and films. In those forms the protagonist may simply be the leading actor, or the principal character in the story. More formally, the protagonist, while still defined as a leading character, may also be defined as the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist. The antagonist will provide obstacles and complications and create conflict that test the protagonist, thus revealing the strengths and weaknesses of their character.[4]

The earliest known examples of protagonist are dated back to Ancient Greece. At first dramatic performances involved merely dancing and recitation by the chorus. But then in Poetics, Aristotle describes how a poet named Thespis introduced the idea of having one actor step out and engage in a dialogue with the chorus. This invention of tragedy occurred about 536 B.C.[5] Then the poet Aeschylus, in his plays, introduced a second actor, inventing the idea of dialogue between two characters. Sophocles then wrote plays that required a third actor.[6][7][8][9]

Euripides' play Hippolytus may be considered to have two protagonists. Phaedra is the protagonist of the first half, who dies partway through the play. Her stepson, the titular Hippolytus, assumes the dominant role in the second half of the play.[10]

In Ibsen’s play The Master Builder, the protagonist is the architect Halvard Solness. The young woman, Hilda Wangel, whose actions lead to the death of Solness, is the antagonist.[11]

In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is the protagonist. He is actively in pursuit of his relationship with Juliet, and the audience is invested in that story. Tybalt, as an antagonist, opposes Romeo and attempts to thwart the relationship.[12]

In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Prince Hamlet, who seeks revenge for the murder of his father, is the protagonist. The antagonist would be the character who most opposes Hamlet, Claudius.[13]

In more contemporary times, protagonists can also be primarily female: Little Women boasts a cast of over five diverse females struggling with the inevitability of the crossing between childhood and womenhood.[17]

Sometimes the protagonist will not even be human: in Richard Adams' novel Watership Down, a group of anthropomorphised rabbits, led by the protagonist Hazel, escape their warren after seeing a vision of its destruction, starting a perilous journey to find a new home.[19]

1.
William Shakespeare
–
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589

2.
Hamlet
–
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlets father, Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brothers widow. It has inspired many other writers—from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and he almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeares time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors in each successive century. Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, each version includes lines and entire scenes missing from the others. The plays structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny, the protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his fathers brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlets widow, Gertrude, Hamlets mother, Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighboring Norway, which culminated when King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway, and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbrass infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian kings son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent. On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle and they vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed. As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, after the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his fathers death and his mothers hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself, as Poloniuss son Laertes prepares to depart for a visit to France, Polonius gives him contradictory advice that culminates in the ironic maxim to thine own self be true. Poloniuss daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet, and that night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, telling the prince that he was murdered by Claudius and demanding that Hamlet avenge him. Hamlet agrees and the ghost vanishes, the prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to put an antic disposition on and forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret. Privately, however, he remains uncertain of the ghosts reliability, soon thereafter, Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving crazily. Polonius blames love for Hamlets madness and resolves to inform Claudius, as he enters to do so, the king and queen finish welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the students investigate the cause of Hamlets mood, additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard, messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the King of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his fathers battles. The forces that Fortinbras conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlets behavior, and speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to uncover more information. Hamlet feigns madness but subtly insults Polonius all the while, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they are spies

3.
Ancient Greek language
–
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek

4.
Ancient Greece
–
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC

5.
Poetics (Aristotle)
–
Aristotles Poetics is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory in the West. This has been the view for centuries. However, recent work is now challenging whether Aristotle focuses on literary theory per se or whether he focuses instead on dramatic musical theory that only has language as one of the elements, in it, Aristotle offers an account of what he calls poetry. They are similar in the fact that they are all imitations, difference of goodness in the characters. Difference in how the narrative is presented, telling a story or acting it out, in examining its first principles, Aristotle finds two, 1) imitation and 2) genres and other concepts by which that of truth is applied/revealed in the poesis. His analysis of tragedy constitutes the core of the discussion, although Aristotles Poetics is universally acknowledged in the Western critical tradition, almost every detail about his seminal work has aroused divergent opinions. The work was lost to the Western world for a long time and it was available in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance only through a Latin translation of an Arabic version written by Averroes. Aristotles work on aesthetics consists of the Poetics, Politics and Rhetoric, the Poetics is specifically concerned with drama. At some point, Aristotles original work was divided in two, each written on a separate roll of papyrus. Only the first part – that which focuses on tragedy and epic – survive, the lost second part addressed comedy. Some scholars speculate that the Tractatus coislinianus summarises the contents of the lost second book, the table of contents page of the Poetics found in Modern Librarys Basic Works of Aristotle identifies five basic parts within it. Preliminary discourse on tragedy, epic poetry, and comedy, as the forms of imitative poetry. Definition of a tragedy, and the rules for its construction, definition and analysis into qualitative parts. Rules for the construction of a tragedy, Tragic pleasure, or catharsis experienced by fear, the characters must be four things, good, appropriate, realistic, and consistent. Discovery must occur within the plot and it is important for the poet to visualize all of the scenes when creating the plot. The poet should incorporate complication and dénouement within the story, as well as all of the elements of tragedy. The poet must express thought through the words and actions, while paying close attention to diction. Aristotle believed that all of different elements had to be present in order for the poetry to be well-done

6.
Aristotle
–
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander

7.
Thespis
–
Thespis of Icaria, according to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, was the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor playing a character in a play. In other sources, he is said to have introduced the first principal actor in addition to the chorus, Thespis was a singer of dithyrambs. This new style was called tragedy, and Thespis was the most popular exponent of it, eventually, in 534 BC competitions to find the best tragedy were instituted at the City Dionysia in Athens, and Thespis won the first documented competition. Capitalising on his success, Thespis also invented theatrical touring, he would tour various cities while carrying his costumes, masks, titles of some plays have been attributed to Thespis. It is implied that Thespis invented acting in the Western world, in fact, Thespis is the first known actor in written plays. He may thus have had a role in changing the way stories were told. In reverence to Thespis, actors in the English-speaking part of the world have been referred to as thespians. Thespis is a 2014 UK film, produced by ACT2 CAM A branch of the National Theater of Greece expressly instituted in 1939 to tour the country is named The Wagon of Thespis in his honour. A first season episode of the TV series Sports Night was named Thespis, a theatre company based in Plymouth, UK, established in 2015 by Greek-born now Plymouth-based Anastasios Chalas, is named Thespis Project, inspired by his pioneering spirit. Aeschylus Aristophanes Aristotle Dionysia Euripides Phrynichus Solon Sophocles Gaster, Theodor, H. Thespis, Ritual, Myth, and Drama in the Ancient Near East, Henry Schuman Publishing, New York,1950

8.
Aeschylus
–
Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy, academics knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater allowing conflict among them, fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy, at least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians second invasion of Greece. This work, The Persians, is the surviving classical Greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events. Despite this, Aeschylus work – particularly the Oresteia – is generally acclaimed by modern critics and scholars. As soon as he woke from the dream, the young Aeschylus began to write a tragedy, and his first performance took place in 499 BC and he won his first victory at the City Dionysia in 484 BC. In 510 BC, when Aeschylus was 15 years old, Cleomenes I expelled the sons of Peisistratus from Athens, Cleisthenes reforms included a system of registration that emphasized the importance of the deme over family tradition. In the last decade of the 6th century, Aeschylus and his family were living in the deme of Eleusis, the Persian Wars played a large role in the playwrights life and career. In 490 BC, Aeschylus and his brother Cynegeirus fought to defend Athens against the army of Darius I of Persia at the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians emerged triumphant, a victory celebrated across the city-states of Greece, Cynegeirus, however, died in the battle, receiving a mortal wound while trying to prevent a Persian ship retreating from the shore, for which his countrymen extolled him as a hero. In 480, Aeschylus was called into service again, this time against Xerxes Is invading forces at the Battle of Salamis. Ion of Chios was a witness for Aeschyluss war record and his contribution in Salamis, Salamis holds a prominent place in The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia. Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who were initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, initiates gained secret knowledge through these rites, likely concerning the afterlife. Firm details of specific rites are sparse, as members were sworn under the penalty of not to reveal anything about the Mysteries to non-initiates. Nevertheless, according to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of revealing some of the secrets on stage. Other sources claim that a mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot. Heracleides of Pontus asserts that the tried to stone Aeschylus

9.
Sophocles
–
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were later than those of Aeschylus. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and was never judged lower than second place, Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won 5 competitions. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor and he also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus. Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a member of the rural deme of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become a setting for one of his plays. Sophocles was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, Sophocles was born into a wealthy family and was highly educated. Sophocles first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the master of Athenian drama. According to Plutarch, the victory came under unusual circumstances, instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon and the other strategoi present to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that following this loss Aeschylus soon left for Sicily, although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC. Triptolemus was probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival, in 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean, celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have one of his patrons, although if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles, Cimons rival. In 443/2 he served as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, in 420 BC, he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of Asclepius at his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this, he was given the posthumous epithet Dexion by the Athenians and he was also elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one in the winter of 406/5 BC, as with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories. The most famous is the suggestion that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his Antigone without pausing to take a breath, another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia, one of his sons, Iophon, and a grandson, also called Sophocles, also became playwrights. Several ancient sources mention Sophocles homosexuality or bisexuality, Athenaios reported that Sophocles loved boys like Euripides loved women. The poet Ion of Chios relates an anecdote involving Sophocles seducing a serving boy at a symposium, Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles early career, followed suit and adopted the third character into his own work towards the end of his life

10.
Euripides
–
Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few plays have survived, with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but according to the Suda it was 92 at most, of these,18 or 19 have survived more or less complete and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, yet he also became the most tragic of poets, focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was also unique among the writers of ancient Athens for the sympathy he demonstrated towards all victims of society and his contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism, both of them being frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Whereas Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as an influence, Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age. Recent scholarship casts doubt on ancient biographies of Euripides, for example, it is possible that he never visited Macedonia at all, or, if he did, he might have been drawn there by King Archelaus with incentives that were also offered to other artists. Upon the receipt of a saying that his son was fated to win crowns of victory. In fact the boy was destined for a career on the stage and he served for a short time as both dancer and torch-bearer at the rites of Apollo Zosterius. His education was not confined to athletics, he studied painting and philosophy under the masters Prodicus. He had two marriages and both his wives—Melite and Choerine —were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis, there he built an impressive library and pursued daily communion with the sea and sky. Eventually he retired to the court of King Archelaus in Macedonia. However, as mentioned in the introduction, biographical details such as these should be regarded with scepticism and this biography is divided into three sections corresponding to the three kinds of sources. The apocryphal account that he composed his works in a cave on Salamis island was a late tradition, much of his life and his whole career coincided with the struggle between Athens and Sparta for hegemony in Greece but he didnt live to see the final defeat of his city. In an account by Plutarch, the failure of the Sicilian expedition led Athenians to trade renditions of Euripides lyrics to their enemies in return for food. Tragic poets were often mocked by comic poets during the dramatic festivals Dionysia and Lenaia, Aristophanes scripted him as a character in at least three plays, The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs. Yet Aristophanes borrowed rather than just satirized some of the methods, he was once ridiculed by a colleague, Cratinus, as a hair-splitting master of niceties

11.
Hippolytus (play)
–
Hippolytus is an Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC, Euripides first treated the myth in a previous play, Hippolytos Kalyptomenos, which is now lost, what is known of it is based on echoes found in other ancient writings. It is thought that the contents to the missing Hippolytos Kalyptomenos portrayed a shamelessly lustful Phaedra who directly propositioned Hippolytus, Euripides revisits the myth in Hippolytos Stephanophoros, its title refers to the crown of garlands Hippolytus wears as a worshipper of Artemis. In this version Phaedra fights against her own desires, which have been incited by Aphrodite. The play is set in Troezen, a town in the northeastern Peloponnese. Theseus, the king of Athens, is serving a voluntary exile after having murdered a local king. His illegitimate son is Hippolytus, whose birth is the result of Theseuss rape of the Amazon Hippolyta, Hippolytus has been trained since childhood by the king of Troezen, Pittheus. At the opening of the play Aphrodite, Goddess of love, explains that Hippolytus has sworn chastity, instead, he honors the Goddess of the hunt, Artemis. This has led her to initiate a plan of vengeance on Hippolytus, when Hippolytus went to Athens two years previously Aphrodite inspired Phaedra, Hippolytus stepmother, to fall in love with him. Hippolytus appears with his followers and shows reverence to a statue of Artemis, a servant warns him about slighting Aphrodite, but Hippolytus refuses to listen. The chorus, consisting of married women of Troezen, enters and describes how Theseuss wife. Phaedra, sickly, appears with her nurse, after an agonizing discussion, Phaedra finally confesses why she is ill, she loves Hippolytus. The nurse and the chorus are shocked, Phaedra explains that she must starve herself and die with her honor intact. However, the nurse quickly retracts her initial response and tells Phaedra that she has a charm to cure her. However, in an aside she reveals different plans, the nurse, after making Hippolytus swear not to tell anyone, informs Hippolytus of Phaedras desire and suggests that Hippolytus consider yielding to her. He reacts with a tirade and threatens to tell his father, Theseus. After making the chorus swear secrecy, she goes inside and hangs herself, Theseus returns and discovers his wifes dead body. Because the chorus is sworn to secrecy, they cannot tell Theseus why she killed herself, Theseus discovers a letter on Phaedras body, which falsely asserts that she was raped by Hippolytus

12.
Ibsen
–
Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as the father of realism and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre and he is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and A Dolls House became the worlds most performed play by the early 20th century. Several of his dramas were considered scandalous to many of his era. Ibsens later work examined the realities that lay behind many façades and it utilized a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. The poetic and cinematic early play Peer Gynt, however, has strong surreal elements, Ibsen is often ranked as one of the most distinguished playwrights in the European tradition. Richard Hornby describes him as a profound poetic dramatist—the best since Shakespeare and he is widely regarded as the most important playwright since Shakespeare. He influenced other playwrights and novelists such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, James Joyce, Eugene ONeill, Ibsen was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902,1903, and 1904. Ibsen wrote his plays in Danish and they were published by the Danish publisher Gyldendal, born into a merchant family connected to the patriciate of Skien, Ibsen shaped his dramas according to his family background. He was the father of Prime Minister Sigurd Ibsen, Ibsens dramas continue in their influence upon contemporary culture and film with notable film productions including A Dolls House featuring Jane Fonda and A Master Builder featuring Wallace Shawn. Ibsen was born to Knud Ibsen and Marichen Altenburg, in a merchant family, in the small port town of Skien in Telemark county. Ibsens grandfather, ship captain Henrich Ibsen, had died at sea in 1797, Knud Ibsens paternal ancestors were ship captains of Danish origin, but he decided to become a merchant, having initial success. His marriage to Marichen Altenburg, a daughter of ship-owner Johan Andreas Altenburg, theodore Jorgenson points out that Henriks ancestry reached back into the important Telemark family of Paus both on the fathers and on the mothers side. Hedvig Paus must have well known to the young dramatist. Henrik Ibsen was fascinated by his parents strange, almost incestuous marriage, Henriks sister Hedvig would write about their mother, She was a quiet, lovable woman, the soul of the house, everything to her husband and children. She sacrificed herself time and time again, There was no bitterness or reproach in her. The Ibsen family eventually moved to a city house, Snipetorp, owned by Knud Ibsens half-brother, Ibsen would both model and name characters in his plays after his own family. At fifteen, Ibsen was forced to leave school and he moved to the small town of Grimstad to become an apprentice pharmacist and began writing plays. In 1846, when Ibsen was age 18, a liaison with a servant produced a child, whose upbringing Ibsen had to pay for until the boy was in his teens

13.
Romeo and Juliet
–
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeares most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays, today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. The plot is based on an Italian tale translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562, Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both but expanded the plot by developing a number of supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris. Believed to have written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. The text of the first quarto version was of quality, however. Shakespeares use of his dramatic structure has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops, Romeo, for example, grows more adept at the sonnet over the course of the play. Romeo and Juliet has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical, during the English Restoration, it was revived and heavily revised by William Davenant. David Garricks 18th-century version also modified several scenes, removing material then considered indecent, Performances in the 19th century, including Charlotte Cushmans, restored the original text and focused on greater realism. John Gielguds 1935 version kept very close to Shakespeares text and used Elizabethan costumes, the play, set in Verona, Italy, begins with a street brawl between Montague and Capulet servants who, like their masters, are sworn enemies. Prince Escalus of Verona intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death, later, Count Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter Juliet, but Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet and Juliets nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Pariss courtship, meanwhile, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Montagues son, about Romeos recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited infatuation for a girl named Rosaline, one of Capulets nieces, persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet, Juliets cousin, Tybalt, is enraged at Romeo for sneaking into the ball but is only stopped from killing Romeo by Juliets father, who does not wish to shed blood in his house. Romeo makes himself known to her and they agree to be married, with the help of Friar Laurence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their childrens union, they are secretly married the next day. Tybalt, meanwhile, still incensed that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight. Mercutio is offended by Tybalts insolence, as well as Romeos vile submission, Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to break up the fight

14.
Alfred Hitchcock
–
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE was an English film director and producer, at times referred to as The Master of Suspense. He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres and he had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as Englands best director. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939, and became a US citizen in 1955 and he also fashioned for himself a recognisable directorial style. Hitchcocks stylistic trademarks include the use of movement that mimics a persons gaze. In addition, he framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy and his work often features fugitives on the run alongside icy blonde female characters. Prior to 1980, there had long been talk of Hitchcock being knighted for his contribution to film, Hitchcock later received his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year Honours. Hitchcock directed more than fifty films in a career spanning six decades and is often regarded as one of the most influential directors in cinematic history. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else, Hitchcocks first thriller, The Lodger, A Story of the London Fog, helped shape the thriller genre in film. His 1929 film, Blackmail, is cited as the first British sound feature film, while Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest. Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone and he was the second son and the youngest of three children of William Hitchcock, a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock. He was named after his fathers brother, Hitchcock was raised as a Roman Catholic, and sent to Salesian College, Battersea, and the Jesuit grammar school St Ignatius College in Stamford Hill, London. His parents were both of half-English and half-Irish ancestry and he often described a lonely and sheltered childhood that was worsened by his obesity. Around age five, Hitchcock recalled that to him for behaving badly. This incident implanted a lifelong fear of policemen in Hitchcock, and such harsh treatment, sources vary on Hitchcocks performance in school. Gene Adair reports that by most accounts, Alfred was only an average, or slightly above-average, however, McGilligan writes that Hitchcock certainly excelled academically. When Hitchcock was 15, his father died, in that same year, he left St. Ignatius to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London. After leaving, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a company called Henleys. Hitchcock joined a regiment of the Royal Engineers in 1917

15.
Psycho (1960 film)
–
When originally made, Psycho was seen as a departure from Hitchcocks previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcocks best films and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics. After Hitchcocks death in 1980, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups, in 1992, the US Library of Congress deemed the film culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. During a lunchtime tryst in Phoenix, Arizona, a real estate secretary named Marion Crane discusses with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, after lunch, Marion returns to work, where a client drops off a $40,000 cash payment on a property. Her boss asks her to deposit the money in the bank, returning home, she begins to pack for an unplanned trip, deciding to steal the money and give it to Sam in Fairvale, California. She is seen by her boss on her way out of town, during the trip, she pulls over on the side of the road and falls asleep, only to be awakened by a state patrol officer. He is suspicious about her nervous behavior but allows her to drive on, shaken by the encounter, Marion stops at an automobile dealership and trades in her Ford Mainline, with its Arizona license plates, for a Ford Custom 300 that has California tags. Her transaction is all for naught—the highway patrolman sees her at the car dealership, driving on, Marion encounters a sudden rainstorm and decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, the proprietor, Norman Bates, invites her to a light dinner after she checks in. She accepts, but then hears an argument between Norman and his mother about bringing a woman into her house. They eat in the parlor, where he tells her about his hobby of taxidermy and his life with his mother. Returning to her room, Marion decides to go back to Phoenix to return the stolen money and she prepares to take a shower, unaware that Norman is spying on her. As she is showering, a female figure suddenly comes in. A week later, Marions sister Lila arrives in Fairvale and confronts Sam about the whereabouts of her sister, a private investigator named Arbogast approaches them and confirms that Marion is wanted for stealing the $40,000 from her employer. He eventually comes across the Bates Motel, where Normans behavior arouses his suspicions, after hearing that Marion had met with Normans mother, he asks to speak with her, but Norman refuses. Arbogast calls Lila and Sam, informing them of what he has discovered and he goes to the Bates home in search of her, as he reaches the top of the stairs, Mrs. Bates suddenly appears from the bedroom and murders him. When Lila and Sam do not hear from Arbogast, they go to the local sheriff, concerned, Lila and Sam make their way to the motel. Norman takes his mother from her room, telling her he needs to hide her for a while in the fruit cellar. At the motel, Lila and Sam meet Norman, Sam distracts him by striking up a conversation while Lila sneaks up to the house

16.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
–
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer. He was a critic of the Soviet Union and communism. He was allowed to only one work in the Soviet Union, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. After this he had to publish in the West, most notably Cancer Ward, August 1914, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature. Solzhenitsyn was afraid to go to Stockholm to receive his award for fear that he would not be allowed to reenter and he was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1994 after the states dissolution. Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, RSFSR and his mother, Taisiya Zakharovna was of Ukrainian descent. Her father had risen from humble beginnings to become a wealthy landowner, during World War I, Taisiya went to Moscow to study. While there she met and married Isaakiy Solzhenitsyn, a officer in the Imperial Russian Army of Cossack origins. The family background of his parents is vividly brought to life in the chapters of August 1914. In 1918, Taisia became pregnant with Aleksandr, on 15 June, shortly after her pregnancy was confirmed, Isaakiy was killed in a hunting accident. Aleksandr was raised by his mother and aunt in lowly circumstances. His earliest years coincided with the Russian Civil War, by 1930 the family property had been turned into a collective farm. Later, Solzhenitsyn recalled that his mother had fought for survival and his educated mother encouraged his literary and scientific learnings and raised him in the Russian Orthodox faith, she died in 1944. As early as 1936, Solzhenitsyn began developing the characters and concepts for an epic work on World War I. This eventually led to the novel August 1914 – some of the chapters he wrote then still survive, Solzhenitsyn studied mathematics at Rostov State University. At the same time he took courses from the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History. As he himself makes clear, he did not question the state ideology or the superiority of the Soviet Union until he spent time in the camps. During the war Solzhenitsyn served as the commander of a battery in the Red Army, was involved in major action at the front

17.
The First Circle
–
In the First Circle is a novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn released in 1968. A more complete version of the book was published in English in 2009, the novel depicts the lives of the occupants of a sharashka located in the Moscow suburbs. Many of the prisoners are technicians or academics who have been arrested under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code in Joseph Stalins purges following the Second World War. The title is an allusion to Dantes first circle of Hell in The Divine Comedy, wherein the philosophers of Greece and they are unable to enter Heaven, as they were born before Christ, but enjoy a small space of relative freedom in the heart of Hell. Innokentii Volodin, a diplomat, makes a call he feels obliged by conscience to make. His call is taped and the NKVD seek to identify who has made the call, the sharashka prisoners, or zeks, work on technical projects to assist state security agencies and generally pander to Stalins increasing paranoia. He narrows it down to Volodin and one suspect, both of whom are arrested. By the end of the book, several zeks, including Gleb Nerzhin, Volodin, initially crushed by the ordeal of his arrest, begins to find encouragement at the end of his first night in prison. has the day come to shoot him yet. The novel addresses numerous philosophical themes, and through multiple narratives is an argument both for a stoic integrity and humanism. Like other Solzhenitsyn works, the book illustrates the difficulty of maintaining dignity within a designed to strip its inhabitants of it. Rostislav Ruska Vadimich Doronin, A zek mechanic,23, loves Klara, daughter of the prosecutor Makarygin. An informer himself, albeit a reluctant one, is beaten, Klara Petrovna Makarygina, Makarygins youngest daughter, works in the vacuum laboratory and falls in love with Ruska. Gleb Vikentyevich Nerzhin, A zek mathematician, age 31 and he is offered a position in a cryptography group, and refuses, even knowing this means he will be sent away from the sharashka. Waited for eight years and became a student in Moscow because of him but is considering divorce because remaining married to a prisoner blocks her prospects for continuing studies or finding a job. Valentin Walentulya Martinevich Pryanchikov, A zek engineer and head of the laboratory, he is not taken seriously and behaves like a child. Lev Grigoryevich Rubin, A zek philologist and teacher,36, a Communist from youth, Rubin is based on Solzhenitsyns friend Lev Kopelev. He gets a position in a new group, his first task is to identify the man who called the American embassy, dmitri Aleksandrovich Sologdin, A zek designer,36, a survivor of the northern camps now serving his second term. Sologdin is based on Solzhenitsyns friend Dimitrii Mikhailovich Panin, who wrote a book entitled The Notebooks of Sologdin

18.
Gulag
–
The Gulag was the government agency that administered and controlled the Soviet forced-labor camp system during Joseph Stalins rule from the 1930s up until the 1950s. The term is commonly used to reference any forced-labor camp in the Soviet Union. The camps housed a range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners. Large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas, the Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. The agencys full name was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and it was administered first by the State Political Administration, later by the NKVD and in the final years by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The internment system grew rapidly, reaching a population of 100,000 in the 1920s, the author likened the scattered camps to a chain of islands and as an eyewitness he described the Gulag as a system where people were worked to death. Natalya Reshetovskaya, the wife of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, said in her memoirs that The Gulag Archipelago was based on folklore as opposed to objective facts. In March 1940, there were 53 Gulag camp directorates and 423 labor colonies in the USSR, todays major industrial cities of the Russian Arctic, such as Norilsk, Vorkuta, and Magadan, were originally camps built by prisoners and run by ex-prisoners. About 14 million people were imprisoned in the Gulag labor camps from 1929 to 1953, according to some estimates, the total population of the camps varied from 510,307 in 1934 to 1,727,970 in 1953. According with other estimates, at the beginning of 1953 the total number of prisoners in prison camps was more than 2.4 million of more than 465,000 were political prisoners. The institutional analysis of the Soviet concentration system is complicated by the distinction between GULAG and GUPVI. In many ways the GUPVI system was similar to GULAG and its major function was the organization of foreign forced labor in the Soviet Union. The top management of GUPVI came from the GULAG system, the major noted distinction from GULAG was the absence of convicted criminals in the GUPVI camps. Otherwise the conditions in both systems were similar, hard labor, poor nutrition and living conditions, and high mortality rate. According with the estimates, in total, during the period of the existence of GUPVI there were over 500 POW camps. According to a 1993 study of archival Soviet data, a total of 1,053,829 people died in the Gulag from 1934–53. Some independent estimates are as low as 1.6 million deaths during the period from 1929 to 1953. Most Gulag inmates were not political prisoners, although significant numbers of prisoners could be found in the camps at any one time

19.
Leo Tolstoy
–
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth. Tolstoys fiction includes dozens of stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays, in the 1870s Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work A Confession. His literal interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. Tolstoy also became an advocate of Georgism, the economic philosophy of Henry George. Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate 12 kilometres southwest of Tula, the Tolstoys were a well-known family of old Russian nobility, tracing their ancestry to a mythical Lithuanian noble Indris. He was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, Tolstoys parents died when he was young, so he and his siblings were brought up by relatives. In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University and his teachers described him as both unable and unwilling to learn. Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow, in 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. It was about time that he started writing. Others who followed the path were Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin. During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed an execution in Paris. Writing in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin, The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere. Tolstoys concept of non-violence or Ahimsa was bolstered when he read a German version of the Tirukkural and he later instilled the concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his A Letter to a Hindu when young Gandhi corresponded with him seeking his advice. His European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo, whose literary talents Tolstoy praised after reading Hugos newly finished Les Misérables, the similar evocation of battle scenes in Hugos novel and Tolstoys War and Peace indicates this influence. Tolstoys political philosophy was influenced by a March 1861 visit to French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

20.
War and Peace
–
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, which is regarded as a central work of world literature and one of Tolstoys finest literary achievements. The novel chronicles the history of the French invasion of Russia, portions of an earlier version, titled The Year 1805, were serialized in The Russian Messenger from 1865 to 1867. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1869, newsweek in 2009 ranked it first in its Top 100 Books. In 2007, Time magazine ranked War and Peace third in its poll of the 10 greatest books of all time while Anna Karenina was ranked first, Tolstoy said War and Peace is not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle. Large sections, especially the later chapters, are a philosophical rather than narrative. Tolstoy also said that the best Russian literature does not conform to standards and hence hesitated to call War, instead, he regarded Anna Karenina as his first true novel. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, no single English novel attains the universality of Leo Tolstoys War, War and Peace is perhaps best known as one of the longest novels ever written. Tolstoy began writing War and Peace in the year that he married and settled down at his country estate. The first half of the book was written under the name 1805, during the writing of the second half, he read widely and acknowledged Schopenhauer as one of his main inspirations. However, Tolstoy developed his own views of history and the role of the individual within it, the first draft of the novel was completed in 1863. In 1865, the periodical Russkiy Vestnik published the first part of this draft under the title 1805, Tolstoy was dissatisfied with this version, although he allowed several parts of it to be published with a different ending in 1867. He heavily rewrote the novel between 1866 and 1869. Tolstoys wife, Sophia Tolstaya, copied as many as seven separate complete manuscripts before Tolstoy considered it again ready for publication, the version that was published in Russkiy Vestnik had a very different ending from the version eventually published under the title War and Peace in 1869. Russians who had read the serialized version were anxious to buy the complete novel, the novel was translated almost immediately after publication into many other languages. It is unknown why Tolstoy changed the name to War and Peace and he may have borrowed the title from the 1861 work of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, La Guerre et la Paix. The title may also be reference to Titus, described as being a master of war and peace in The Twelve Caesars. The completed novel was then called Voyna i mir, the 1805 manuscript was re-edited and annotated in Russia in 1983 and since has been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Albanian, Korean, and Czech. The existence of so many versions make this one of the best insights into the mental processes of a great novelist

21.
Little Women
–
Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the books rapidly over several months at the request of her publisher, the novel follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March—detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood, and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters. Little Women was an commercial and critical success, and readers demanded to know more about the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume, the two volumes were issued in 1880 in a single work entitled Little Women. Alcott wrote two sequels to her work, both of which also featured the March sisters, Little Men and Jos Boys. Although Little Women was a novel for girls, it differed notably from the current writings for children, the novel addressed three major themes, domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroines individual identity. Little Women has been read as a romance or as a quest and it has been read as a family drama that validates virtue over wealth, but also as a means of escaping that life by women who knew its gender constraints only too well. Elbert argued that within Little Women can be found the first vision of the All-American girl, the book has been adapted for film twice as silent films, and four times with sound, in 1933,1949,1978 and 1994. Four television series were made, including two in Britain in the 1950s and two series in Japan in the 1980s. A musical version opened on Broadway in 2005, an American opera version in 1998 has been performed internationally and filmed for broadcast on US television in 2001. In 1868, Thomas Niles, the publisher of Louisa May Alcott, at first she resisted, preferring to publish a collection of her short stories. Niles pressed her to write the book first, and he was aided by her father Amos Bronson Alcott. In May 1868, Alcott wrote in her journal, Niles, partner of Roberts, Alcott set her novel in an imaginary Orchard House modeled on her own residence of the same name, where she wrote the novel. She later recalled that she did not think she could write a book for girls. I plod away, she wrote in her diary, although I dont enjoy this sort of things, scholars classify Little Women as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel. By June, Alcott had sent the first dozen chapters to Niles, but Niles niece Lillie Almy read them and said she enjoyed them. The completed manuscript was shown to several girls, who agreed it was splendid, Alcott wrote, they are the best critics, so I should definitely be satisfied. She wrote Little Women in record time for money, but the immediate success surprised both her and her publisher

22.
Jane Eyre
–
Jane Eyre /ˈɛər/ is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, the first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Charlotte Brontë has been called the first historian of the private consciousness, the novel is a first-person narrative from the perspective of the title character. The novels setting is somewhere in the north of England, late in the reign of George III, John Rivers, proposes to her, and her reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. During these sections the novel provides perspectives on a number of important social issues and ideas, Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters, and most editions are at least 400 pages long. The original publication was in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15,16 to 27, and 28 to 38, Brontë dedicated the novels second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray. The novel begins with the character, Jane Eyre, aged 10, living with her maternal uncles family. It is several years after her parents died of typhus, Mr. Reed, Janes uncle, was the only person in the Reed family who was ever kind to Jane. Janes aunt, Sarah Reed, dislikes her, treats her as a burden, Mrs. Reed and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The nursemaid Bessie proves to be Janes only ally in the household, excluded from the family activities, Jane is incredibly unhappy, with only a doll and books for comfort. She is subsequently attended to by the apothecary, Mr. Lloyd. He recommends to Mrs. Reed that Jane should be sent to school, Mrs. Reed then enlists the aid of the harsh Mr. Brocklehurst, director of Lowood Institution, a charity school for girls. Mrs. Reed cautions Mr. Brocklehurst that Jane has a tendency for deceit, during a school inspection by Mr. Brocklehurst, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, thereby drawing attention to herself. He then stands her on a stool, brands her a liar, Jane is later comforted by her friend, Helen. Miss Temple, the superintendent, facilitates Janes self-defence and writes to Mr. Lloyd. Jane is then cleared of Mr. Brocklehursts accusations. The 80 pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes, and Janes friend Helen dies of consumption in her arms. When Mr. Brocklehursts maltreatment of the students is discovered, several benefactors erect a new building, conditions at the school then improve dramatically

23.
Religion
–
Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities

24.
Proto-feminism
–
Precise usage is disputed, as 18th-century feminism and 19th-century feminism are subsumed under feminism. The utility of the term protofeminist is rejected by modern scholars. Book five of Platos The Republic discusses the role of women, Are dogs divided into hes and shes, or do they both share equally in hunting and in keeping watch and in the other duties of dogs. Or do we entrust to the males the entire and exclusive care of the flocks, while we leave the females at home, the Republic states that women in Platos ideal state should work alongside men, receive equal education, and share equally in all aspects of the state. The sole exception involved women working in capacities which required less physical strength, Women were not accorded with such legal status in other cultures, including the West, until centuries later. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam states that the improvement of the status of Arab women included prohibition of female infanticide. The dowry, previously regarded as a paid to the father. Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a status but rather as a contract, Women were given inheritance rights in a patriarchal society that had previously restricted inheritance to male relatives. There have been some who have claimed that is evidence of matrilineality in pre-Islamic Arabia, some have speculated that Mohammeds motivation was to remove matrilineality and install a purely patriarchal system, to which they attribute to being witness today. Shulamith Shahar believed that his wife Khadijah was the last successful businesswoman one could find in Arabia, and there was evidence that Khadijah was the norm, not the exception, before Mohammeds rule over Arabia. After Muhammeds revolution, the Arabian businesswoman disappears and she believes that it is likely that Muhammed specifically targeted the matrilineal system and replaced it with what she believes as the most a strictest patrilineal system ever witnessed. Far from being a proto-feminist, Muhammed would therefore instead be the one who removed rights, as for sexism, the common law long denied married women any property rights or indeed legal personality apart from their husbands. Whilst in the period there was not a formal feminist movement, nevertheless there were a number of important figures who argued for improving womens rights. Women played an important role in the foundations of many Islamic educational institutions and this continued through to the Ayyubid dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries, when 160 mosques and madrasahs were established in Damascus,26 of which were funded by women through the Waqf system. Half of all the patrons for these institutions were also women. As a result, opportunities for female education arose in the medieval Islamic world, in the 12th century, the Sunni scholar Ibn Asakir wrote that women could study, earn ijazahs, and qualify as scholars and teachers. This was especially the case for learned and scholarly families, who wanted to ensure the highest possible education for both their sons and daughters, Ibn Asakir was in support of female education and had himself studied under eighty different female teachers in his time. Female education in the Islamic world was said to be inspired by Muhammads wives, Khadijah, a businesswoman, and Aisha

25.
Richard Adams
–
Richard George Adams was an English novelist who is best known as the author of Watership Down, Shardik and The Plague Dogs. He studied modern history at university before serving in the British Army during World War II, afterwards, he completed his studies, and then joined the British Civil Service. In 1974, two years after Watership Down was published, Adams became a full-time author, Adams was born on 9 May 1920 in Wash Common, near Newbury, Berkshire, England, the son of Lilian Rosa and Evelyn George Beadon Adams, a doctor. He attended Horris Hill School from 1926 to 1933, and then Bradfield College from 1933 to 1938, in 1938, he went to Worcester College, Oxford, to read Modern History. In July 1940, Adams was called up to join the British Army and he was posted to the Royal Army Service Corps and was selected for the Airborne Company, where he worked as a brigade liaison. He served in Palestine, Europe and the Far East but saw no action against either the Germans or the Japanese. After being released from the army in 1946, Adams returned to Worcester College to continue his studies for a two years. He received a degree in 1948, proceeding MA in 1953. It was during this period that he began writing fiction in his spare time, Adams originally began telling the story that would become Watership Down to his two daughters on a car trip. They eventually insisted that he publish it as a book and he began writing in 1966, taking two years to complete it. In 1972, after four publishers and three writers agencies turned down the manuscript, Rex Collings agreed to publish the work, the book gained international acclaim almost immediately for reinvigorating anthropomorphic fiction with naturalism. Over the next few years Watership Down sold over a million copies worldwide, Adams won both of the most prestigious British childrens book awards, one of six authors to do so, the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Childrens Fiction Prize. In 1974, following publication of his novel, Shardik. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1975, at one point, Adams served as writer-in-residence at the University of Florida and at Hollins University in Virginia. Adams was the recipient of the inaugural Whitchurch Arts Award for inspiration in January 2010, presented at the Watership Down pub in Freefolk, in 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Winchester. In 1982, Adams served one year as president of the RSPCA, besides campaigning against furs, Adams wrote The Plague Dogs to satirize animal experimentation. He also made a voyage through the Antarctic in the company of the ornithologist Ronald Lockley, just before his 90th birthday, he wrote a new story for a charity book, Gentle Footprints, to raise funds for the Born Free Foundation. Adams celebrated his 90th birthday in 2010 with a party at the White Hart in his hometown of Whitchurch, Hampshire, Adams wrote a poetic piece celebrating his home of the past 28 years

26.
Watership Down
–
Watership Down is a classic adventure novel, written by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in southern England, the features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry. Evoking epic themes, the novel follows the rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home, encountering perils, Watership Down was Richard Adams first novel. Although it was rejected by several publishers before Collings accepted it, it won the annual Carnegie Medal, annual Guardian Prize and it was adapted into the 1978 animated film Watership Down. Later there was a series also titled Watership Down which ran from 1999 to 2001. Adams completed a sequel almost 25 years later, Tales from Watership Down and it is a collection of 19 short stories about El-ahrairah and the rabbits of the Watership Down warren, with Notes on Pronunciation and Lapine Glossary. The title refers to the destination, Watership Down, a hill in the north of Hampshire, England. The story began as tales that Richard Adams told his young daughters Juliet, as he explained in 2007, he began telling the story of the rabbits. Improvised off the top of my head, as we were driving along, the daughters insisted he write it down—they were very, very persistent. After some delay he began writing in the evenings and completed it 18 months later, the book is dedicated to the two girls. Adamss descriptions of wild rabbit behaviour were based on The Private Life of the Rabbit, the two later became friends, embarking on an Antarctic tour that became the subject of a co-authored book, Voyage Through the Antarctic. Watership Down was rejected seven times before it was accepted by Rex Collings, the one-man London publisher Collings wrote to an associate, Ive just taken on a novel about rabbits, one of them with extra-sensory perception. Collings had little capital and could not pay an advance but he got a review copy onto every desk in London that mattered, Adams wrote that it was Collings who gave Watership Down its title. There was an edition in 1973. Macmillan USA, then a giant, published the first U. S. edition in 1974. According to WorldCat, participating libraries hold copies in 18 languages of translation, in the Sandleford warren, Fiver, a young runt rabbit who is a seer, receives a frightening vision of his warrens imminent destruction. When he and his brother Hazel fail to convince their chief rabbit of the need to evacuate, they set out on their own, accompanied by nine other rabbits who choose to go with them

27.
Anthropomorphism
–
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions and natural forces like seasons. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters, people have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioural traits to wild as well as domestic animals. Anthropomorphism derives from its verb form anthropomorphize, itself derived from the Greek ánthrōpos and it is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God. One of the oldest known is a sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine, Germany. It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent, in either case there is an element of anthropomorphism. This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologist Steven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic. In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism refers to the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, ancient mythologies frequently represented the divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality, they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain phenomena, creation. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons and they feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such as beauty, wisdom, and power, and sometimes human weaknesses such as greed, hatred, jealousy, Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is referred to as anthropotheism, from the perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered theomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans. Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy, particularly prominently with the Audians in third century Syria, but also in fourth century Egypt and tenth century Italy. This often was based on an interpretation of Genesis 1,27, So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him. Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed and blackThracians that they are pale and he said that the greatest god resembles man neither in form nor in mind. Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension, judaisms rejection of an anthropomorphic deity grew during the Hasmonean period, when Jewish belief incorporated some Greek philosophy. Judaisms rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth century, hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems

28.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker

29.
William Packard (author)
–
William Packard was an American poet, playwright, teacher, novelist, and was also founder and editor of the New York Quarterly, a national poetry magazine. Packard was born September 2,1933, and was raised in New York and he was a graduate of Stanford University, where he earned a degree in philosophy and studied under the poet and critic Yvor Winters. Packard was a presence in the circles of the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1950s and 60s — circles that included Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Patchen. Packard was most active, however, in New York City, in 1957 he was awarded a Frost Fellowship and, in 1980, was honored with a reception at the White House for distinguished American poets. Packards literary career spanned nearly 50 years and resulted in the publication of six volumes of poetry, including To Peel an Apple, First Selected Poems, Voices/I hear/voices and his novel, Saturday Night at San Marcos, is a bawdy, irreverent send-up of the literary scene. It is written with “a sharp yet loving bite … Picture the pace of Jack Kerouacs On the Road plus caricature worthy of Portnoy, ” according to the New York Times. His translation of Racine’s Phedre, for which he was awarded the Outer Critic’s Circle Award, is the only English rendering to date to have maintained the original’s rhymed Alexandrine couplets. ”. Three collections of Mr. Packard’s one-act plays, Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Threesome, Packard was the great-grandson of Evangelist Dwight L. Moody and wrote the non-fiction book Evangelism in America, From Tents to TV, Packard was editor of the New York Quarterly for 33 years — from its founding 1969 until his death in 2002. Poet and novelist James Dickey called Packard one of the editors of our time. H. Auden, John Ashbery, Paul Blackburn, Richard Eberhart, Stanley Kunitz, Anne Sexton, Franz Douskey, Charles Bukowski, in fact, NYQ has, in its thirty-year career, published virtually every important poet in the nation. But the magazine is equally acclaimed for supporting the work of lesser-known poets, Packard’s friend, the author Charles Bukowski, was often found in the pages of The New York Quarterly. Bukowski contributed poems, correspondence, and in 1985 he was the subject of the magazine’s “craft interview”, Packard appears in the film, Bukowski, Born into This. The New York Quarterly temporarily suspended publication when Packard suffered a stroke, the Estate of William Packard New York Quarterly Luna Park

30.
OCLC
–
The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services, the group first met on July 5,1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The goal of network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the worlds information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26,1971 and this was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data, between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States. As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside of Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with networks, organizations that provided training, support, by 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on OCLC Members Council, in early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. org, in October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988, a browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013, it was replaced by the Classify Service. S. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users and this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. OCLC has produced cards for members since 1971 with its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, e. g. CONTENTdm for managing digital collections, OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications and these publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organizations website. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding

31.
Foil (literature)
–
In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character —usually the protagonist— in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character. In some cases, a subplot can be used as a foil to the main plot and this is especially true in the case of metafiction and the story within a story motif. The word foil comes from the old practice of backing gems with foil in order to make them shine more brightly, a foil usually either differs dramatically or is extremely similar but with a key difference setting them apart. The concept of a foil is also widely applied to any comparison that is made to contrast a difference between two things. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the two characters, Dr. Frankenstein and his creature are both together literary foils, functioning to compare one to the other. In Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice, Marys absorption in her studies places her as a foil to her sister Lydia Bennets lively, similarly, in Shakespeares play Julius Caesar, the character Brutus has foils in the two characters Cassius and Mark Antony

William Shakespeare
–
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems,

2.
John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

3.
Shakespeare's coat of arms, as it appears on the rough draft of the application to grant a coat-of-arms to John Shakespeare. It features a spear as a pun on the family name.

4.
Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Hamlet
–
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlets father, Claudius had murdered his own brother a

4.
A facsimile of Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, which contains the legend of Amleth

Ancient Greek language
–
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a hi

1.
Inscription about the construction of the statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon, 440/439 BC

2.
Ostracon bearing the name of Cimon, Stoa of Attalos

3.
The words ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ as they are inscribed on the marble of the 1955 Leonidas Monument at Thermopylae

Ancient Greece
–
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the

1.
The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, located on the Acropolis in Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks.

2.
Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the beginning of the Archaic period, c. 750 BC.

3.
Political geography of ancient Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods

Poetics (Aristotle)
–
Aristotles Poetics is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory in the West. This has been the view for centuries. However, recent work is now challenging whether Aristotle focuses on literary theory per se or whether he focuses instead on dramatic musical theory that only has

1.
Aristotelianism

2.
Arabic translation of the Poetics by Abū Bishr Mattā.

Aristotle
–
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died

1.
Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippus, c. 330 BC. The alabaster mantle is modern.

2.
Aristotelianism

3.
School of Aristotle in Mieza, Macedonia, Greece

4.
"Aristotle" by Francesco Hayez (1791–1882)

Thespis
–
Thespis of Icaria, according to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, was the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor playing a character in a play. In other sources, he is said to have introduced the first principal actor in addition to the chorus, Thespis was a singer of dithyrambs. This new style was called tragedy, an

2.
Thespis (1965), bronze sculpture by Robert Cook, commissioned for the opening of the Canberra Theatre

Aeschylus
–
Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy, academics knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater allowing conflict among them, fragmen

1.
Bust of Aeschylus from the Capitoline Museums, Rome

2.
Bust of Aeschylus at North Carolina Museum of Art

3.
Modern picture of the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, where many of Aeschylus's plays were performed

4.
Mosaic of Orestes, main character in Aeschylus's only surviving trilogy, The Oresteia

Sophocles
–
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were later than those of Aeschylus. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and was never judged lower than second place, Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won 5 competitions. Sophocles influenced the d

Euripides
–
Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few plays have survived, with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but according to the Suda it was 92 at most, of these,18 or 19 have survived more or less complete and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other

Hippolytus (play)
–
Hippolytus is an Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC, Euripides first treated the myth in a previous play, Hippolytos Kalyptomenos, which is now lost, what is known of it is based on echoes found in other ancient writings. It is th

1.
The Death of Hippolytus (1860) by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Ibsen
–
Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as the father of realism and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre and he is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and A Dolls House became the worlds most performed play by the early 20th

Romeo and Juliet
–
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeares most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays, today, the title characters are regarded

Alfred Hitchcock
–
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE was an English film director and producer, at times referred to as The Master of Suspense. He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres and he had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as Englands best director. Hitchcock mov

1.
Studio publicity photo, circa 1955.

2.
Hitchcock (right) during the making of Number 13 in London

3.
Hitchcock with Chandran Rutnam (centre) and Sri Lankan film maker Anton Wickremasinghe at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

4.
Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946)

Psycho (1960 film)
–
When originally made, Psycho was seen as a departure from Hitchcocks previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcocks best films and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics. After Hitchcocks death in 1980, Universa

1.
Theatrical release poster

2.
The Psycho set on the Universal lot, featuring a Ford Custom 300 similar to that driven by Janet Leigh in the film.

3.
Edward Hopper 's The House by the Railroad, used as inspiration for the look of the Bates house.

4.
The shadowy figure from the shower scene.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn
–
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer. He was a critic of the Soviet Union and communism. He was allowed to only one work in the Soviet Union, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. After this he had to publish in the West, most notably Cancer Ward, August 1914, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the 1970

1.
Solzhenitsyn in 1974

2.
Solzhenitsyn in Cologne, West Germany, in 1974

3.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn looks out from a train, in Vladivostok, summer 1994, before departing on a journey across Russia. Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after nearly 20 years in exile.

4.
Solzhenitsyn with Vladimir Putin.

The First Circle
–
In the First Circle is a novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn released in 1968. A more complete version of the book was published in English in 2009, the novel depicts the lives of the occupants of a sharashka located in the Moscow suburbs. Many of the prisoners are technicians or academics who have been arrested under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code

1.
In the First Circle

2.
Cover of the 87 chapter version

Gulag
–
The Gulag was the government agency that administered and controlled the Soviet forced-labor camp system during Joseph Stalins rule from the 1930s up until the 1950s. The term is commonly used to reference any forced-labor camp in the Soviet Union. The camps housed a range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners. Large numbers were

1.
The fence at the old Gulag in Perm-36, founded in 1943

2.
Road construction by inmates of the Dalstroy (part of the ' Road of Bones ' from Magadan to Yakutsk).

3.
Transpolar Railway was a project of the Gulag system that took place from 1947 to 1953.

Leo Tolstoy
–
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved acclaim in his

1.
Tolstoy in May, 1908, four months before his 80th birthday (photographed at Yasnaya Polyana by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky; the first colour photograph taken in Russia).

2.
Tolstoy at age 20, 1848

3.
Tolstoy's grave with flowers at Yasnaya Polyana.

4.
Tolstoy's wife Sophia and their daughter Alexandra

War and Peace
–
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, which is regarded as a central work of world literature and one of Tolstoys finest literary achievements. The novel chronicles the history of the French invasion of Russia, portions of an earlier version, titled The Year 1805, were serialized in The Russian Messenger from 1865 to 1867. The

1.
War and Peace

2.
Only known color photograph of the author, Leo Tolstoy, taken at his Yasnaya Polyana estate in 1908 by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky

3.
Tolstoy's notes from the ninth draft of War and Peace, 1864

4.
Cover of War and Peace, Italian translation, 1899

Little Women
–
Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the books rapidly over several months at the request of her publisher, the novel follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March—detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood, and is loosely

1.
Two-volume Roberts Brothers printing, from the early 1870s

2.
The attic at Fruitlands where Alcott lived and acted out plays at 11 years old. Note that the ceiling area is around 4 feet high

3.
Illustration featuring the father character coming home from the Civil War

4.
Title page of the first volume of Little Women, 1868

Jane Eyre
–
Jane Eyre /ˈɛər/ is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, the first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Charlotte Brontë has been called the first historian of the private consciousness, the novel is a first-person na

1.
Title page of the first Jane Eyre edition

2.
Young Jane argues with her guardian Mrs. Reed of Gateshead, illustrated by F. H. Townsend

3.
The Salutation pub in Hulme, Manchester. This is where Charlotte Brontë began to write Jane Eyre; the pub was a lodge in the 1840s.

Religion
–
Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason,

1.
Urarina shaman, Peru, 1988

3.
The Yazılıkaya sanctuary in Turkey, with the twelve gods of the underworld

4.
Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are one, a painting in the litang style portraying three men laughing by a river stream, 12th century, Song dynasty

Proto-feminism
–
Precise usage is disputed, as 18th-century feminism and 19th-century feminism are subsumed under feminism. The utility of the term protofeminist is rejected by modern scholars. Book five of Platos The Republic discusses the role of women, Are dogs divided into hes and shes, or do they both share equally in hunting and in keeping watch and in the ot

1.
Christine de Pizan lecturing to a group of men.

2.
Burning of witches

Richard Adams
–
Richard George Adams was an English novelist who is best known as the author of Watership Down, Shardik and The Plague Dogs. He studied modern history at university before serving in the British Army during World War II, afterwards, he completed his studies, and then joined the British Civil Service. In 1974, two years after Watership Down was publ

1.
Richard Adams reads from Watership Down at a 2008 exhibition of Aldo Galli paintings

Watership Down
–
Watership Down is a classic adventure novel, written by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in southern England, the features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry. Evoking epic themes, the

1.
First edition

2.
Nuthanger Farm, Hampshire, England, in 2004.

Anthropomorphism
–
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions and natural forces like seasons. Both have ancient roots as storytelli

1.
In this illustration by Milo Winter of Aesop 's fable, " The North Wind and the Sun ", an anthropomorphic North Wind tries to strip the cloak off of a traveler

2.
The 40,000-year-old Löwenmensch figurine

3.
From the Panchatantra: Rabbit fools Elephant by showing the reflection of the moon

4.
Anthropomorphic pareidolia by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning

1.
A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code

William Packard (author)
–
William Packard was an American poet, playwright, teacher, novelist, and was also founder and editor of the New York Quarterly, a national poetry magazine. Packard was born September 2,1933, and was raised in New York and he was a graduate of Stanford University, where he earned a degree in philosophy and studied under the poet and critic Yvor Wint

1.
William Packard

OCLC
–
The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online p

1.
Fred Kilgour (1st director of OCLC)

2.
Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)

3.
OCLC headquarters (Ohio)

4.
OCLC offices in Leiden (the Netherlands)

Foil (literature)
–
In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character —usually the protagonist— in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character. In some cases, a subplot can be used as a foil to the main plot and this is especially true in the case of metafiction and the story within a story motif. The word foil comes from the ol

1.
Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza, as illustrated by Gustave Doré: the characters' contrasting qualities are reflected here even in their physical appearances

1.
Conflict in narrative comes in many forms. "Man versus man", such as is depicted here in the battle between King Arthur and Mordred, is particularly common in traditional literature, fairy tales and myths.

1.
The prince arrives to break the spell which has kept Sleeping Beauty and her kingdom asleep for 100 years. A classic and well-known use of eucatastrophe. [citation needed] Illustration by Gustave Doré

1.
Allegory of Music by Filippino Lippi (between 1475 and 1500): The "Allegory of Music" is a popular theme in painting. Lippi uses symbols popular during the High Renaissance, many of which refer to Greek mythology.

2.
Salvator Rosa: Allegory of Fortune, representing Fortuna, the Goddess of luck, with the horn of plenty

3.
British School 17th century - Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield. Sometimes the meaning of an allegory can be lost, even if art historians suspect that the artwork is an allegory of some kind.